the tour goes from Baltimore ,Maryland civic 3/26
to Springfield ,Massachusetts Civic 3/28-
338 miles- 6 hour drive
I am NOT a big fan of this audience recording for this show
Way to much of the North East Rhythmic clapping.
I had no idea it was so embedded in the local heads culture?
Still I listened to this in the car
and truth be told this probably represents
the sound at many a show
it is pretty easy to get spoiled by the soundboards,
Playin’ goes from first set closer
to last tune of the Second Set.
Dark Star>Eyes>Playing

Cumberland Blues to open the first set. And it's a good version, not perfect, but thats not unexpected. Knockout blow follows immediately: Here Comes Sunshine, with some unique warts. Then it's a long, great sequence of awesome versions of shorter songs.

Followed by Row Jimmy. This is one of my favorite songs mainly because of the infinitely weird instrumental "interludes" where each member of the band intuitively feels the melancholy melody and groove, they never kick the door in, instead it's ineffable or sublime. The second instrumental interlude in this version is exceptional.

And then ... a Chuck Berry barn burner (still hours to go before the concert is over, folks), a couple deep country excursions laid down with infinite soul and tenderness ...

Garcia's guitar during the last verse of Looks Like Rain ("I only want to know ... etc:) sunds like he's hearing the song for the first time. Or he's heard it so many times it's time for parody.

The awful "downward jam" between Chine Cat and Rider is trip-flattening. Blah. One of the worst musical ideas the Dead ever had.

Second set rolls along as the first set did (meanwhile a fair portiom of the originally attended audience has surely changed seats or abandoned them entirely).

Stella Blue shatters. All your best friends have long since wandered off yet somehow .... somehow ... you soldier on. More country funk follows, half-step climaxes with beautiful vocal harmonies

Some weirdo jam and then, out of nowhere, it's Dark Star, that improv thing these guys used to do before they got turned onto George Jones and Merle Haggard. Whoops. I meant before and **AFTER** they got turned onto George Jones and Merle Haggard.

Deep country ...

What the fuck happens at 11:30 or thereabouts into the Dark Star? And then again at 14:25? Dance dynamite is what that is. The insanity between 17:30 and 19:30? Just more laughs echoing unheaard into the endles void. Phil Lesh will split your atom for you so you have some to share.

Still more to come!

Eyes jam at 17:00.

Playin from 10:00 to 12:00.

One of the best reviews of this show (from shnid=11473) is worth repeating:

" Every Deadhead has a first time but, this was mine! Not Too shabby! I've been putting off listening because I feared being disappointed at my fauly memory or something. Not to worry, apparently. This night was truly memorable. I was 15 and familiar w/ Workingman's, American Beauty, Europe 72, and snippets from Live Dead. The music they played opened up new synaptic pathways in my brain.Thereafter whenever I was bored with stuff going on in school or whatever I would literally 'tune out' and start to hear random improvised music in my head. I could turn it on any time. I credit the Dead with so empowering me. Later I started to play actual music w/ friends and used the Dead as inspiration for much jamming. Saw many shows after that but this one stands as the one to which I compared the others. Never really surpassed I must say. I loved the way they used to get so weird using only rudimentary effect pedals. Jerry used a Crybaby Wah-Wad and Keith had a volume pedal for his piano. Even when they got all that MIDI stuff I don't think they were able to get any further out there than they did in those days. Kinda like the Apollo Space Program , ya know? I mean they throw all that money at NASA and we still ain't been back to the moon." -- wyzrd, Feb 21 2008

Reevaluating this after a few months. Not sure why I thought it was so blah before, & I suspect I was reviewing the wrong show. The first set is killer, no question about it. The 2nd is at least competent, with a very nice 32-minute Dark Star, but not as good as the 1st.

I got this downloaded a couple of weeks ago but am just now beginning to realize what an incredible recording this is.Simply amazing.

I respectfully disagree with the previous reviewer in that this is a ´variable quality show´. To my ears, it is wonderful from start to finish. Every song shines, and the band just swings like the devil.
I think 1973 was probably the best year the Dead ever had. The musicianship in that year was exceptional, even by Dead standards: simultaneously so tight and so trippy.